Okane Ga Nai The Beauty and the Beast of the Yaoi World!

What would you say if I told you, my readers, that, that tale as old as time you think you know was originally a lot darker and has more in common with the yaoi manga Okane Ga Nai than any Disney re-imagination? A beauty with a greedy family and a selfish beast, both these elements are in the original story and ties into the narrative of Okane Ga Nai. Of course, Beauty and the Beast is not the first fairy tale done by Disney that had a darker origin.

In the tale of Cinderella told by the Brother’s Grimm the step sister’s go as far as cutting up their feet to fit into the slipper for the prince. The original tale of The Little Mermaid had no happy ending for the little mermaid, for the prince marries someone else and she turns to sea foam and the prince does not get his happily ever after either. There are other examples of Disney changing these classic tales to make them more family friendly for the modern age but that does not make their versions of these classic stories wrong, just different. A re-imagining for a new generation. If any of my readers ever get the chance I would highly recommend looking into reading the classic fairy tales from the Brothers Grim and Hans Christian Andersen and see the origins of many of the fairy tales we love today. It’s also interesting to see how standards of what is appropriate for a family audience change through time as these were stories told once to children.

But I am getting off topic as this is to be a review of the manga and anime Okane ga Nai and I thought it might be an interesting change to make a comparison to a classic work of literature. Ayase is a naive beauty of the world who wants to believe that the little family he has left will look out for him and care about him as much as he does to them, unfortunately for him his cousin is not the most honest of men and hands him over to an auction house to cover his own gambling debt. Kanou is a beast of a man and young loan shark that buys Ayase at the auction and takes Ayase away from his family to make the young man his own. Now, this is not to break some cure that has befallen the beast, no in the story of Okane Ga Nai there is a shared past between the beauty and the beast and because of this past event our beast has fallen for the beauty. Unfortunately, the beast is not very good at expressing such pure emotions in this not so pure world.

There are many moments of questionable consent throughout both the manga and anime for Okane ga Nai. In fact, the first ‘sex scene’ in the anime is a rape scene. However unlike in The Tyrant Falls in Love, there are consequences for this action and throughout the story afterward, Kanou has to work in earning trust with Ayase because the young man is traumatized by what has happened to him, and so he should be! This is what I meant in the previous reviews when I said rape can work in a narrative, actions have to have consequences. By the end of the anime, both characters do have a positive effect on each other. Ayase learn’s to come out of his shell through many tragic and emotionally difficult moments but through it all, he does not lose his kind heart and that makes him a very strong character. That kind heart even begins to melt our tough beast which makes for some adorable moments between the two.

Okane Ga Nai is one of the true classics of the yaoi genre and a must watch for any yaoi fan and the manga delves even deeper into themes of coming out of one’s emotional shell and letting others in, a lesson perhaps we can all learn from. Till next time, love what you love my fellow yaoi lovers!

 

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